Development of the Nurse Profession in Latvia (18th – 20th Centuries). Summary of the Doctoral Thesis

Abstract

Each profession has its history. The practice of (medical) nurses is called the oldest of arts and the youngest of sciences. Nowadays a nurse is a medical person who has acquired education corresponding to the requirements provided for in the Law on Regulated Professions and Recognition of Professional Qualification. A nurse, in her profession, in compliance with her qualification, takes medical care of the patients, participates in the treatment, manages patient care, informs patients about health care issues and performs the work of professional education. In order to reach the modern professional level, a rather complicated way, full of changes, was needed for improvement of the nurse profession. Different nurse groups are known who have worked in Latvia: grey nurses, charity nurses, deaconess nurses and medical nurses. However, the history of (medical) nurse profession has been comparatively little investigated, and thus the data are often fragmentary, incomplete and distinctive. The aim of this doctoral thesis to provide an analytical overview about the development of nurse profession in Latvia (paradigm and analogies) and its tasks. In view of the rather lengthy course of development of nurse profession in Latvia, the nurses’ activities in the Middle Ages and war situations (during the First World War (1914–1918) and the Second World War (1941–1945), have not been discussed, since this would require more detailed studies. Considering definite events in the state the research falls within the historical division of time. Thus the tasks of this work are the following: To summarize and systematize the available historical sources that provide information about the development of the nurse profession in Latvia’s regions from the 18th century till the First World War (1789–1914); To provide a review of the education and professional activity of nurses during the existence of the Republic of Latvia (1918–1940); To analyse the reorganisation and course of development of the nurse profession in the Latvian SSR (1945–1991); To outline some aspects of nurses’ professional activity in the independent Latvia (1991–1999). The following sources have been used in the elaboration of the doctoral thesis: primary sources (archival and museum documents), secondary sources (periodicals), and documents regulating nurses’ activity. For elaboration of this work, historical materials from Latvian archival funds have been used in the Latvian State Historical Archives and Latvian State Archives, as well as zonal archival funds of Ventspils State Zonal Archives, Cēsis State Zonal Archives, and Daugavpils State Zonal Archives. The course of development of the nurse profession in Latvia has been investigated rather little. To ascertain the activity of charity nurses of the St. Vincent de Paul Society in the territory of Latvia, also the historical division of Latgale has been considered as well as nurses’ places of origin. Thus the materials were sought for in Lietuva State Historical Archives (Lietuvos Valstybes istorijos archyvas), Krakov (Poland) Historical Archives (Archiw panstwo-wego w Krakowie) and Belarusian National Historical Archives (Нацыя-нальны гiстарычны apхiy Бeларyсi). Also materials from Latvian museums were used – the funds of Pauls Stradiņš Medical History Museum and Daugavpils Museum of Local Lore. During the analytical review and selection of documents, 22 funds, 24 descriptions and 78 archival files have been identified. Literature sources in Latvian, German, Polish, Russian and English was used, which was translated into Latvian for the purposes of this work. The following methods of historical investigation have been used in this work: the descriptive method, content analysis of documents, method of classification, chronological method of problem identification, paradigmatic and analogical com-parison. In view of tasks, the work is divided into four chapters. Chapter 1 discusses and analyses the development of nurse profession until the First World War (1789–1914), expounding on the activity of the charity nurses of St. Vincent de Paul Society, deaconess nurses and Russian Red Cross charity nurses. Chapter 2 is dedicated to the professional activity of nurses during the existence of the Republic of Latvia (1918–1940). This chapter focuses on the course of reorganisation of nurse profession, the activity of minority representatives of this profession as well as the beginning of reorganisation of nurse profession during the Soviet period. Chapter 3 shows the professional activity of nurses during the Soviet time (1945–1991). Chapter 4 is dedicated to nurses’ professional activity during the time of state independence from 1991 till 1999.